Blog, Blog, Blog

Speculative Fiction

Last week, I made it past the first round in WYRM's Gauntlet competition, and I was feeling optimistically confident because the second round challenged us to write a short story. Phew! My comfy-cosy zone! Then I read the prompt, and my chest fell, my shoulders rounded, and my tail went between my legs....

Write a short story inspired by this line: I can still see him burning.

And, the genre must be....(drum roll)...Speculative fiction? What the hell is that?

Panic didn't set in until I learned what the genre is all about. Speculative Fiction is an umbrella genre under which you may find combined categories of Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror. Stargopher described it, and I paraphrase here, as 'stories with stuff in it that doesn't exist, like trolls or supernatural elements.' He qualified his explanation by saying we weren't limited in any way to his examples, but the genre speculative fiction was mandatory.

So I started doing some research and learned some interesting things about speculative fiction. The genre is premised by "fiction" defined not by what isn't true, but by what doesn't exist. Spec. Fict. stories either take place in the future, where we don't know what it will be like, or in make believe worlds, or in the past before recorded time, but in a way that contradicts what we believe to be true about ancient times. If Spec. Fict. stories take place in our world, the plot or elements of the plot and characters must contradict what we know to be true or believe to be possible.

At this point in my research, my head was spinning. I still didn't quite get it. Then I read an interesting article at LostBooks.org (link is below) that offered me my first ah-ha moment. Speculative Fiction writers often premise their stories on the question "What if..."

What if medical science could genetically eliminate the need for sleep thus causing two separate classes, those who sleep and those who do not? The non-sleepers can accomplish and gain at minimum twice what you or I can simply because they have more time to devote to work and other interests (see Nancy Kress's novella or novel, Beggars in Spain)?

What if aliens declared Earth to be 'prime real estate' and felt about the extinction of humankind as we felt about the Passenger Pigeon (see James Tiptree, JR's. short story, The Screwfly Solution)?

What if Robert E. Lee had won the battle of Gettysberg (see Harry Turtledove's novels, The Guns of the South or How Few Remain)?

[The three bullet points were copied from LostBooks.org. Read the article in its entirety here: http://www.lostbooks.org/speculative-fiction.html]

So, the way I understand it, Speculative Fiction is the Twilight Zone genre, where reality is skewed and everything you believe to be true may not be. It is a fascinating lens through which to regard fiction, and a genre that takes incredible imagination to pull off. I don't think I'm there yet . But thanks to the WYRM Gauntlet competition, I attempted the genre and wrote a story I never would have penned on my own. Here it is -- comments are MOST welcome!

~Burned~  (18+) Speculative fiction based on the prompt: I CAN STILL SEE HIM BURNING. #1599664 by NickiD89

If you have written a story that would fall under the umbrella category of speculative fiction, send me a link! I'd love to see how others approached the task